Experiences

*Major refit and modifications of interior and structurals on 43 ft. Catana
*Servicing and maintaining a new 53 ft. custom built catamaran and worked through a list of improvements to be made such as, reinforcing bulkheads, refit of deck hardware and cockpit, improving the sailing system and improving the boats systems
*Maintain, service and repair catamarans from New Caledonia
*Service, maintain and repair production catamarans across all designs, which informs our understanding of best practices and designs for custom cat repair and maintenance.

Illustrative case history for a Sailing Cat

Salanjo is a new custom built 53ft sailing catamaran that comes to Robertson Boats for its haul out and maintenance. It is a fairly new boat and regularly cruises offshore. The owner wants to ensure that it’s new fresh look will be maintained for a long time.

Since bringing it to the yard we have done a number of jobs improving the systems on it and ironing out any creases so to speak. The aft bulkhead of the main saloon was found to be too weak and the owner wanted it strengthened up. A plan was drawn up for the job consisting of making the window through to the cockpit smaller and laminating 25mm fibreglass/foam composite sandwich over the existing 25mm bulkhead.

The boat was masked off to protect it from dust and prevent a mess. The window from the galley through to the cockpit was removed and was to be replaced with a smaller one so the cut out had to be made smaller to accommodate it. A pattern was made the size of the new window and a piece of 25mm fibreglass/foam composite sandwich was glued in to fill the hole to the required size.

The outside face of the bulkhead was stripped back to the fibreglass and prepped up for gluing. A pattern was made up of the existing bulkhead so the composite panel could be cut into the right shape, it was scribed onto the panel and cut out. The new piece was laminated onto the existing bulkhead with epoxy, the corners were coved out with microballoons and everything was sanded up in preparation for paint. The exposed foam on the edge of the cut out for the window was rebated out and filled with uni-directional carbon fibre, capped and then was bogged and sanded smooth.

Now the boat was cleaned and the masking was removed. The boat was then masked up fresh for painting and the painters applied epoxy primers and undercoats. The undercoat was guide coated and sanded back smooth in preparation for the top coat. Next the boat was cleaned thoroughly, again ensuring a dust free environment for the application of the finish coat, which was then applied resulting in a finish of an extremely high quality. Once cured the masking was removed, the window was installed.

The owner also wanted the manual winches replaced with electric ones. The manual winches were removed. The position of them was checked to make sure that the electric winches could be installed in the same place as the originals, provided there was enough room on the inside of the boat for the motors. The position was fine and the pads they were to be mounted on were strengthened up and reinforced. The electric winches were then installed..

While this was going on the electrician was busy running wires for them and once they were in place proceeded to wire them up. In the workshop a box had been constructed out of fibreglass that was to be installed over the motors so that they were concealed and weren’t too much of an intrusion into the aft cabins. The boxes had been bogged and sanded smooth. They were then undercoated, guide coated and blocked back in prep for the finish coat.

The top coat was sprayed on in the spray booth where a finish of a very high standard could be attained. They were then installed over the motors once the wiring was complete. The position on the deck of some turning blocks feeding the winches was also changed to reduce the load on them and the new positions were reinforced before they were installed.

While this was going on, the engineers were in the engine room installing new alternators which produced more amps. The electrician wired them up replacing the wiring to the batteries.

While this work was taking place the general maintenance and servicing of the boat was being done. The engineers were busy servicing the genset and main engines along with the sail drives. The topsides, cabin and cabin top were buffed and waxed. The painters then masked off the boat and airless sprayed antifoul onto the hull. The job was complete and the boat was launched. All the systems were run up and tested and all was good.